It was a fun weekend!
Friday Night
I didn’t do much on Friday night, other than start laundry. I knew I would be gone most of the day on Saturday so I needed to get started early. We ate supper, watched some Amazon Prime, got everything together for Saturday, and went to bed!
Saturday
We FINALLY got to go kayaking!! If you remember, for the past 2 months, I’ve mentioned 3 different times about plans suddenly changing. Well, this is what I was talking about. We had originally planned to kayak in April, but the weather unexpectedly dropped down into the 40s. That is too cold to be on the water, so we postponed it. The second time, we were almost to the place to park (about 10 minutes away) and a storm came up. So, we had to postpone…again. The third time, I woke up sick so we postponed yet again. So, this past Saturday, we finally made it out onto the water!
To start the morning, we woke up at 5:15, fed the cats, stripped the bed and then put on clean sheets (it was clean sheet day), got dressed, grabbed the bag with our water, Gatorade, and food, and headed out! We stopped for fast food breakfast on the way. I should add here that we did not have coffee because who wants to be needing to use the bathroom while out in the middle of snaky water LOL
To get on the water, we first park at the Ghost River outlet, which is where we get out of the water at the end of the trip. The kayak rental company shuttles the people and kayaks to the input. There we hear what we need to know (follow the blue marks, take a left at #4, etc.) this time, my mom and I were the first ones, and were early, so we got the spiel on the way to the input. When we got to the area to put the kayaks in, the shuttle driver unloaded the kayaks, life jackets, and paddles, and left to go pick up more kayakers. My mom and I have kayaked before, both here and on the backwaters of the ocean, so we know how to kayak on our own. They do have guides for those who haven’t kayaked before or would just feel better having a guide.
The area we kayak in is the Ghost Section part of the Wolf River, and then turns into the Ghost River (at #4). The Ghost River has a lot of cypress knees in some areas and when the water is lower, they are easier to get stuck on top of (that’s an experience in itself – you have to try to “rock” yourself off of it, without flipping). In the times that we went kayaking on the Ghost River before, we never encountered bugs or snakes (but had been told that there are snakes out there). Well, I’m sure it was because of the time of the year that we finally made it out there, there were sections where the bugs were swarming our faces so bad that we couldn’t even focus on what needed to be done. Also, snakes decided it was a good day to come out to sun themselves on logs. Y’all!!! After I saw the first one, I wanted to go home!! But I had to keep going; there was no getting out until I got to the end! My mom actually saw the first one of the day, and I had just passed it, oblivious. At one point, I got stuck on top of a log and as I was trying to get myself off of it, I saw a little snake head peek up out of the log. I just knew the whole snake family would be in the kayak before I could get out of there!! They did not and I moved on. Sometimes I was looking for snakes and trying to keep bugs out of my mouth, nose, and eyes at the same time. That was stressful…and interesting. …and in case you were wondering, we saw a total of six snakes. I’m sure there were way more that we just missed seeing
It did get much better though, once we got to the “lake”. While it was hot (especially when we were in the middle), it was still nice to be out on the water. I was tired, but I no longer wanted to go home to get away from snakes.
As we got closer to the end, there were some “rapids”. I use that term loosely because they weren’t bad. They were just more than what we had been on all day, and it meant we had to paddle harder to stay forward while we were already so tired. This faster-moving water did lead us to the end though. We “landed”, pulled the kayaks from the water, and left the kayaks, paddles, and life jackets for the rental company to pick up.
We got in the vehicle and headed home. Do you know that “drained from being in the sun all day” feeling? Yeah, we had that (plus, we had not had coffee). We did make a pit stop at a gas station for the restroom and grabbed a quick bite to eat (that good gas station food 😉 IYKYK) We made it home, fed the cats, and started showers. We were so exhausted that we could barely function. Once my mom got her shower, she made herself a cup of coffee. At this point, she is thinking that this will be her last kayaking trip, that she just can’t bounce back anymore. While she is drinking her coffee and resting, I take my shower. I get out and make myself some coffee. By now, my mom is up hanging pictures. How is she even functioning, much less hanging pictures?! She assured me that I would feel so much better once I got my coffee drank. Well, she wasn’t lying. It was magic! Now, as a fully caffeinated and functioning human again, I worked on church work, ate supper, and watched “Death in Paradise”, before heading to bed, to read.
Sunday
After a fun and busy Saturday, there is nothing exciting to report on Sunday. We did our normal Sunday thing if you’ve been reading a bit, you know… and came home to rest and “reset” for the week ahead. Of course, church was great as always. I can’t leave that out!
*linking up with Holly & Sarah for Hello Monday!
